🍿 Airbnb & DoorDash's blockbuster IPOs
Hey Snackers,
Christie's is auctioning off a collection of Supreme T-shirts for $2M. How much is our laptop sticker worth?
Yesterday, an FDA panel recommended the approval of Pfizer and BioNTech's Covid-19 vaccine. This means the FDA will likely approve the vax for emergency use, possibly in a few days.
IPO-Palooza: Airbnb and DoorDash soar on their first days as public stocks
That escalated quickly... If the stock market was Hollywood, this week would've been its Sundance Film Festival. Two famous tech platforms delivered back-to-back blockbuster IPOs in their debuts on the public market. BTW: the IPO price is what institutional investors (like mutual funds) — not regular investors like us — get to pay per share.
- DoorDash: The IPO was priced at $102 a share. By the time shares hit the NYSE, they were already trading at $182. Now Dash has a $59B market value, more than 3X its June valuation.
- Airbnb: It IPO'd at $68, but opened on the Nasdaq at $146. Its market value soared to over $100B, more than Marriott, Hilton, and Hyatt combined — and more than 5X its valuation in April.
Hungry for PDA ... Despite a pandemic and an economic crisis, 2020 has been a blockbuster year for IPOs overall. We whipped up two explanations for the IPO-palooza:
- Stock-timism: The stock market is at record highs, with tech stocks leading the charge. The Nasdaq Index is up 36% this year — tech companies want to strike while the market is hot.
- Zoom life: Banks are able to execute IPOs faster — Zoom pitches have replaced physical roadshows.
Don't forget interest rates... Stocks have rallied to record highs partly because interest rates are at record lows (shout-out: the Fed). Super low interest rates can inflate the value of assets like stocks, because they make things like savings accounts seem less attractive. If the APY on your savings account is higher, you're less likely to invest in stocks, which carry risk. If the interest rate is nearly nothing, you're probably more likely to invest, driving up stock prices.
Starbucks stock soars to an all-time high on the Return of the Routine
Cold brew coming in hot... Most important update from Starbucks' investor day: Pumpkin Cream Cold Brew outsold the infamous Pumpkin Spice Latte. Second most important update: oat milk is going nationwide (expect a brown sugar + iced espress-oat concoction). The non-drinkable update: Starbs is planning to open 22K+ new stores in the next ten years, to hit 55K total by 2030.
Not all Starbs are created equal... For Starbucks, there's no such thing as a one-size-fits-all store approach. For an urban hotspot, your typical ~1K ft cafe might be too small. For other neighborhoods, a ballroom-sized Starbucks Reserve might be too big (only for Java snobs). So Starbucks is "canvassing," whipping up different cafes for different needs:
- Drive-thrus: Expect more of these, especially in the burbs. Starbs sales have migrated outside of the city as people move home.
- "Walk-thrus": Order in-app, pay in advance, walk in, and grab. Expect these to pop up in dense city centers.
Our 1st glimpse at "The Return of the Routine"... Starbucks' investor day was majorly focused on looking beyond the corona-conomy. The CEO believes caffeine lovers will flock back to cafes once the pandemic is over, and Starbs' investment in thousands of new stores shows he means it. Starbucks is banking on a return to routine.
What else we’re Snackin’
- Mickey: Disney stock hit an all-time high on news that Disney+ has ~87M subscribers. It expects 230M to 260M by 2024.
- Lulu: Lululemon flexed expectation-beating quarterly earnings — sales jumped 22% from last year on the athleisure life.
- Fluffy: Hyundai is reportedly buying Boston Dynamics (the company that makes Spot robot dogs) for more than $900M.
- Reelin: Instagram launches shopping in its TikTok copycat Reels, the day after the "break up Facebook" lawsuit (awk).
- Drive: Uber asks states to prioritize its ride-hail and delivery drivers for Covid-19 vaccine access.
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Friday
- Consumer sentiment index released.
Authors of this Snacks own shares of: Uber and Disney
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